Gondola project

Press, 14 February 1986, Page 16

Gondola project

Sir, —Your correspondent, M. Dowds, asks for reassurance that the Canterbury United Council will "... consider very carefully before making any decision about the gondola project.” This assurance can readily be given. The United Council’s Summit Road Advisory Committee considers several applications each year for developments within the protected area. Even relatively minor works such as the placing of picnic tables or small extensions to the five houses along the Summit Road are fully investigated. Consent is not always given and frequently modifications to proposals are required. Within the last year, for example, the advisory committee and the United Council planners, have had notable success in persuading/requiring the Post Office to significantly modify proposed additional communications facilities on Mount Pleasant and Cashmere. — Yours, etc., DAVID W. COLLINS, Chairman, Canterbury United Council Summit Road Advisory Committee, February 13, 1986.

Sir, — I agree that we do not need projects like the gondola, providing jobs and incomes for hundreds of Christchurch people, nor we want to be able to sit

in attractive surroundings admiring the view across the Canterbury Plains. Much better that we put our parkas on, face the winter rain, climb the Bridle path and eat our cut lunches in the shelter at the top. If it is good enough for us it should be good enough for foreign tourists. After squashing the gondola project, hopefully other groups will move on to other worth-while protests such as pulling up the Summit Road, the closing of the Lyttelton road tunnel and limited use of the Bridle Path. Only when all these aims are achieved will Heathcote be returned to the 19th century, making it an even bigger tourist attraction. — Yours, etc., B. FINNERTY. February 12, 1986.